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This monograph details the results of a large, systematic study of the short- and long-term impacts of liberal arts colleges and liberal arts education using two longitudinal datasets that together contain information on more than 6,500 students and alumni from more than 40 institutions located throughout the country. The longitudinal nature of both datasets allowed the authors to carry out analyses in a way that avoids the major methodological problems characteristic of much of the existing research. Specifically, the authors were able to estimate the net effects of liberal arts colleges while controlling for many potentially biasing influences of different student precollege characteristics--including in many instances a parallel precollege score on the outcome measure. For example, in estimating the effects of liberal arts colleges on intellectual and personal growth during college, the authors were able to take into account where students scored on each outcome measure when they